Ahh! Feel like I'm apologising every chapter but my laptop was being rubbish for months. so couldn't upload it. Harry's third year is a big turning point for Elodie in many ways so it's going to be a bit longer and take a few chapters. In this one we're getting ready for September and Elodie's getting a blast from the past but does he recognise her?

Summer before Harry's third year.

I'd never really had much contact with the ministry before but that August they were everywhere. Hordes of professional busy bodies scouring every inch of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Fleetingly, I wished for their presence seven years ago but I couldn't think of that little scared girl anymore. I had mourned enough for her lost childhood but I had to look for the future me now. Enough nostalgia. Call it Stockholm syndrome but I now had the chance to make a real impact on the lives of the pupils of Hogwarts. The sheer administrative incompetence of Hogwarts had irritated me for years, now I could change this.

In mid August, Dumbledore called a staff meeting. Setting up the tea and biscuits on the side, I could hear the grumblings of the staff. They'd had a dreadful year now they were being called back in the middle of the holidays. No one really noticed me, too engrossed in their own complaints before Dumbledore swooped in and called the meeting to order. I was just fixing the slightly leaky caffeinator so was maybe a minute late to take my seat. Dumbledore's face was like thunder as I sat down in the spare chair but I just shrugged at him. This was the agreement after all. I took a quick look around the circle, same old faces: McGonagall, Sprout, Pomphrey even Trelawney had deigned to come down from her tower but then… That old face. Ice shot through my heart as I was forcibly reminded of those first months in Hogwarts. Remus. Or Ray-mousse as I could only say back in the day. The man who had taught me English. The man who had played with me, cared for me. We'd been two lost souls trying to find a sense of stability after devastating loss.

I'd missed most of Dumbledore's opening spiel in my shock and near felt out of my chair when he droned on with, "and of course we've got new members of staff, Remus Lupin an esteemed expert in Defence as well as Elodie Hogwarts personal assistant."

I'd finally caught Lupin's eyes but all I got was a little smile. The same you'd give to someone who held the door open. We'd spent hours alone, surely I was worth more than that?

I didn't quite expect the clamour of surprise when my name was announced. New Defence Professors were fairly par for the course but Hogwarts PAs? Now that was new. I looked around the circle where the old guard were struggling to contain themselves in the shock. To be fair it was a little overwhelming.

Flitwick piped up above the noise, "Albus what is this? What's she to do?" I saw Dumbledore open his mouth and realised if I didn't speak now I'd be cursed to spend hours cutting potion ingredients like some eternal detention. I'd seen the aftermath of these weird teachers' "sanctions and detention."

I butted in, "Professor, I'm effectively the bridge between Hogwarts the school and Hogwarts the building. I can liaise with the elves to sort out things if you need furniture moved, supplies ordered etc. My first port of call is Professor Dumbledore, then the staff, then the head pupils, then the prefects and finally wider student body. I'm happy to do errands etc to Hogsmeade you just need to give me time. I'm… not magical so you'll have to give me some leeway in that."

The greasy black haired one was about to make some disparaging comment but strangely Dumbledore saved me when he gave me a fearsome scowl and added, "I know Hogwarts put more pressure on the staff with the nasty incident last year so Elodie really makes your life easier."

Then came the flurry of questions about tea rotas, order systems, cleaning etc. I really needed to make it clear I was not a personal house elf to fifteen adults. I knew there would be teething issues, but my goodness this was obscene.

I did point out whilst I could use the fires, there was no option to apparate so service wouldn't be 24/7. This led to a whole twist to how they could contact me or ask for jobs. We agreed we'd put parchment in the staffroom so I could see their requests but there were still grumbles and Dumbledore was staring at me with a face on him I didn't quite enjoy.

Finally, we were able to move away from me and went into another hour about Sirius Black's escape and the subsequent security arrangements. Basically, dementors on the train, and patrolling the exteriors, curfew was restricted for the younger years and no longer to be brushed off as youthful shenanigans. The increased patrols last year were "temporarily extended". I definitely heard Sprout mumble, "temporary extension my arse!" It would be another 18 months before the "temporary extension" of the number of patrols would cease to be referred as temporary.

A good three hours later the meeting was finally adjourned. Most teachers were moving in, then leaving asap to enjoy the rest of their summer. Dinner was served, I had a list as long as my leg and still staff were coming up to try to organise new things. I resorted to writing on my hand in an attempt to keep up. Trelawney was droning on about how "the ambience of my balls really changes the shadowy past" whilst I was trying not to snort when the other new member of staff very hesitantly came up to me.

"Hi, what can I do for you?" I probably looked a lot more excited than necessary. I gazed up to him, he was greyer now with more facial scars but still my Remus. All I could think was "please remember me. Remember that little girl". He spoke to me as a stranger.

"Apologies but this is my first day in the castle for a while. I was told you were the person to go for to find my classroom and quarters?"

Not a single shard of recognition.

I swallowed down fast. "Ahh.. of course Professor Lupin, follow me! Your classroom is on the third floor so if we just go up these stairs?"

He picked up his faded suitcase with a rueful laugh. "First time, I've been called Professor. It feels so strange. We're colleagues, please call me Remus. What shall I call you?"

"Elodie" He smiled at that but said little else as we continued to go up the stairs that were thankfully behaving themselves today.

I was able to show him his classroom easily enough but his quarters were another matter. Most staff accommodation were close to their classrooms and staffroom with the exception of the Heads of Houses who naturally had to be closer to the students. Dumbledore wasn't usually involved in such mundane matters as room allocations but this year he'd taken a closer interest. He'd announced the traditional Defence Professor room wouldn't be suitable so allocated the new Professor to some dingy set of rooms on the sixth floor. We'd tried to improve them but one couldn't change the size of general lack of windows.

Nevertheless, when Remus walked into those rooms it was like he'd walked into the Ritz. Watching him wander around the small bedroom and sofa area trailing his hands along the furniture in a sort of repressed awe it was rather pathetically touching. I tried to apologise but his reaction honestly would make the densest individual speculate about his previous housing situations. With a list as long as my arm and a half I eventually had to make my leave reminding him he could ask for help through my sheet of parchment in the staffroom.

By that last weekend before term that bloody list in the staffroom was controlling my life. Honestly I'd had years where no one knew my name and the isolation was agonising. But this! From 6am to past midnight all I heard was "Elodie!". Nearly wishing I'd given a fake name to avoid this. Dumbledore in all his wisdom had put a charm so every time someone added to the list my lovely self would get a little beeping buzz from this bell thing I now had to travel with. Unfortunately, it didn't quite have the technology to tell me what was on the list so the amount of times I had to jump in the floo up three flights of stairs just to be told Professor So-and-So just needed a cup of tea was ridiculous.

It was driving me insane. The little sleep I was getting was full of vivid dreams of parchment and that unending tinnitus inducing buzz. This all came to a head at one of Dumbledore and my "meetings" ie he barks orders and complaints I try to write it down and he moans some more. They're the highlight of my week. There had been about four buzzes in three minutes and Dumbledore had increasingly got more and more irritated. I'd eventually muttered something about having to go answer these requests before he went on another epic rant.

Seeking to defuse him, only for the sake of my eardrums I desperately suggested, "Surely you can try to fix this in some way? If the list could follow me around maybe…"

He shook his head abruptly. "No Sprout will have my head again if she loses that bloody list…" He stopped, stared at me for a second and smiled before abruptly grabbing my left forearm.

"Whaat…what are you doing?" He simply held onto me tighter. He pressed his long white fingers into my arm, weaving his wand around with the constant murmurs of "Confodio Effingo" Swirls of black that looked liquid but was not wet travelled around my forearm and seemed to melt into it.

"What was that?" I murmured.

He smiled and held his hand up.

I began to feel a piercing scratching sensation on my arm, almost as if someone was poking me with a pin over and over again.

I looked down at my arm and saw words. Words were etching out on my skin. In horrified silence I waited to simply read "need 5 toads for 4/9 Charms lesson. FF"

I stared at my tormentor with aghast. He smiled back.

"Now that's so much better than that buzzing noise hmmm. You won't even have to keep going back to the staffroom every time anyone writes on that bloody list!"

"You can go now."

"Bbbuut you can't! It's on my skin…" I tried to protest.

He waved them away. "You'll actually find out I can, Miss Elodie with no name. This is a modified version of the spell, we couldn't have you screaming every time anyone wants a cup of tea. It would disrupt learning. However, if you ever need a reminder of its full power, I'd be very happy to oblige."

I opened my mouth, recognised the futility, tried to swallow the tears and quickly left the office colliding into the unassuming mass of Hogwarts' newest Defence Professor. We would have gone flying if he hadn't caught me. He managed to set me on my two feet again before getting a better look at my face.

"Elodie isn't it? What happened to you? Are you alright?" He murmured to me.

I opened my mouth ready to say before I felt the old pain. It was part of that original old House Elf spell. Can't speak ill of the caster. I simply had to smile and nod.

He looked unconvinced and seemingly was about to interrogate me more before we heard the frustrated shout down the doorway. "Lupin… for Merlin's sake stop dawdling and come up here!"

I did notice Remus' slight flinch and stored it away in my mental picture of the man. He shrugged to me and smiled. "Bye Elodie, have a good day" and scurried off to his new employer.

I shrugged and winced as I felt that scratching piercing ache again. The pain continued for the next month but did eventually die down as just another pain I felt in the night my most self-pitying.

The wider public may wonder at the mindset of a man- it's important to remember Dumbledore was only a man- who would create a mild torture device so that his "employee" could get the jobs done faster. It was typical really of his whole approach to life and to others. It was another version of his For the Greater Good mantra. Whatever, you may read in the Prophet or from his acolytes, Dumbledore never gave up his devotion to his boyhood mantra. He simply refined it. The buzzing from his own spell was annoying him, so he perfected it. What was the worth of another's labours or body? As Sirius Black, Remus Lupin amongst others found out-worthless unless the Master of the Greater Good needs you.